The adventure began last Thursday. I traded in the comfort of my home and bed for a tent and a wet sleeping bag, the hot sunshine for pouring rain and 80mph winds, my Lehi home for a prairie in Wyoming, a luxurious car for a handcart on wheels, and yes, my most comfortable T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers for a full pioneer dress, bonnet, and raincoat. What does all this trading equal? The best week of my life at the Lehi Gateway stakes Trek!
When I began my adventure, I was not sure what to expect. I thought, "sure, its going to be a great experience, but I already know a lot about the pioneers, what more do I have to learn?" It turns out a lot! I thought I already knew about the suffering they went through and the hardships they faced on their perilous journey, but it turns out, I had no idea! I never knew how much it hurt to have soaking wet shoes and socks for an entire two days. Or how much pain is involved to watch your tent collapse when the never ending 80mph winds rip and shred your tent right before your eyes, as everything inside including your only dry pair of clothes, your sleeping bag, and any other possessions allotted in your 17 pound bucket are completely soaked, with no hope of anything drying out because the rain never stops. Or how emotional it is to be in Martins cove, where you can almost hear the wolves tearing and eating the dead loved ones of the courageous Martin handcart company.
I don't know how the Martin and Willy handcart companies did it. Its a complete mystery to me how anyone could have that much courage, or that much faith. The theme of our trek was "fresh courage take." It turns out we needed a lot of courage as lightning flashed right outside our tents, and as our small campsite was torn apart by the raging wind. Or even as we had to keep telling ourselves, just take one more step, even though as we took that step, we could hear the water squish out of our shoes, just to be filled with more water in the next step. Or for me, to lead my family through the wind and rain as the big sister (or youth leader) everyone looked to for advice as to know what to do next. Then again when I had to play "prayer of a walking child" in martins cove, when I was crying so hard and filled with such strong emotion that I could not see my challenging music. Then again and again as we saw a hill ahead we would have to pull our handcart over, knowing it would take all our strength.
I think it took the most courage of all to hear President Ogden bring us the news, that we would have to leave a day early. Even though we were all soaked to the bone, and the missionaries told us there would be a foot of snow in the morning, no one wanted to leave. Yet, we once again pulled all our courage and faith we had left, and ran into the raging, never ending storm to our tattered ripped apart campsite and loaded the handcarts one last time to pull them to the buses. I had never before in my life, and probably never will see again so much determination and fire in so many young teenagers eyes. Over the course of the trip, the spirit was so strong. The veil was so thin, and everyone felt so close to God. Many people saw visions of the pioneers, and we could feel their presence among us, walking with us, and daring us to take one more step, and giving us the courage to do so. The young men weren't just young men anymore. They were like the Valley boys who rescued the Martin handcart company. They were lifelines again and again to the young women. I am not sure how many times I was offered the only dry clothes they had left, or how many boys surrounded my tent holding it up through the storm so I would have somewhere sheltered to sleep that night. No one wanted to leave the place where so many miracles happened, but we gathered our courage, and helped each other load the buses, and come back to the comfort of our homes, back to the sunshine of Lehi, back to our real families, back to dry clothes and shoes, back to home. I found even though we were no longer in the incredible place, we still had the lasting friendships, the lasting memories, the lasting courage, and the lasting faith we had gained there.
No comments:
Post a Comment